In memoriam Iwan Gunawan

Bandung, 1 January 1974 - Amsterdam, 16 March 2026. With sadness in our hearts, we have said farewell to our dear friend, kindred spirit, musician and composer Mas Iwan Gunawan. We will miss him forever.

Foto: Deen van Meer
We are deeply grateful for his innovative and open-hearted contribution to the world of Indonesian and Western contemporary music, and to our longtime artistic collaboration.
As a musician and composer, Iwan had an adventurous spirit; he loved to explore the spectrum of possibilities of his beloved instrument, the gamelan, beyond cultural boundaries. He made no distinction between East and West, not between his Javanese roots and the Western roots of many of his artistic partners. ‘I’m more interested in the transcultural,’ he said, ‘music is just music. The influence of culture is always there. Gamelan is just an instrument; it can play any music. Though doing so is not so easy. Whether the Gamelan can play certain music depends on our technique, our creativity, and if we can make connection.’

Above all, music was more than a form of artistic expression for Iwan. ’Music is a medium for making life better and more beautiful, a world without racism, violence, or war. Music is a medium for making friends and seeing others as your brothers and sisters.’

Working with Iwan was inspiring and familiar. He had a natural understanding of music and dance and the synergy between them. His expertise, unusual ideas, openness, curiosity, respect, perseverance and generosity set a new standard for the collaboration between cultures and disciplines. We shared his insistence on finding the balance between concept and intuition: between that what brings you out of your comfort zone and what connects you to your tradition and emotion. But above all, Iwan was our dear friend with whom we alternated serious artistic discussions and processes with laughter, fun, food, spaghetti bolognese and playing football-games.

Today his wife Chie and his eldest son Sailendra will return home to Java. Later this week Iwan follows. We send our love and strength to Iwan’s wife and their four children, and to all who were close to Mas Iwan.

With love,

Andrea, Harijono and Benthe

Dansgezelschap Leine Roebana